1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates in general to a documentation interface, and, in particular, to an Internet-based application program interface (API) documentation interface.
2. Description of Related Art
An application program interface (API) is a set of routines, protocols, and tools for building software applications. Most operating environments provide an API so that programmers can write applications that are consistent with an operating environment. The APIs typically have documentation that provides instructions for using the API.
The documentation can exist in a variety of forms. In the past, the most common form for the documentation was bounded, hard-copy manuals. These manuals were typically large and bulky manuals that contained hundreds of pages of detailed information. To locate and retrieve information from these manuals, programmers were typically forced to search through massive amounts of irrelevant information.
In this age of information technology, an abundance of these hard-copy manuals have been converted to electronic versions (also referred to as on-line versions) and placed on the Internet. Further, some of the new documentation is specially designed for the Internet. The Internet is a type of global computer network that offers a vast amount of information to a multitude of diverse computer users. Via its networks, the Internet enables many users from different geographical locations to access information stored in data sources (e.g., databases) that are located around the world. The World Wide Web (WWW or the web) is the fastest growing part of the Internet. The WWW is a system of Internet servers that support specifically formatted documents (e.g., HTML documents). These documents include, but are not limited to, on-line versions of the API documentation.
Many on-line versions of API documentation use file formats, such as portable document format (PDF) files or Post Script files. These file formats capture formatting information from a variety of desktop publishing applications, making it possible to produce images on a monitor. The images contain the API documentation. Like the hard-copy manuals, the images are virtually inaccessible by many users because the images are difficult to search.
Some electronic versions of the API documentation are written in Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML). SGML is a system for organizing and tagging text in a document. SGML was developed and standardized by the International Organization for Standards (ISO), and it is used to manage large documents that are subject to frequent revisions and need to be printed or displayed in different formats. However, programmers and other computer users typically experience difficulty searching through SGML versions of API documents. Like the PDF files and post script files, most SGML versions of the API documents are difficult to use because users have to search through massive amounts of information before locating their desired topic. It is noted that, SGML cannot be viewed on the web unless it is converted to a language that is used to create documents on the web.
Documents for the web may be created using Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML). HTML is one way of defining and interpreting tags according to SGML rules. In an effort to make the API documentation accessible to web users, conventional systems convert SGML versions of API documentation to HTML versions of API documentation. The HTML versions, however, are virtually inaccessible to many web users. Like the SGML versions of the API documentation, the HTML versions are often extremely difficult to search.
To eliminate the burden of searching through massive amounts of irrelevant information, the Javodoc Tool, developed by Sun Microsystems, Palo Alto, Calif. provides an API documentation interface. This interface provides a mechanism for searching API documentation. The Javadoc Tool, however, can only be used in conjunction with Java source code. In fact, the Javadoc Tool uses the Java compiler to extract comments from Java source code. The Javodoc Tool then uses these comments to create an API documentation interface. The Javadoc Tool provides limited benefits because it can not be used with other languages. For example, the Javadoc Tool can not be used with Active X, C++ or any other high level language.
Thus, there is a need in the art for an improved API documentation interface that enables easily locating desired data, and that works with any language.
To overcome the limitations in the prior art described above, and to overcome other limitations that will become apparent upon reading and understanding the present specification, the present invention discloses a method, apparatus, and article of manufacture for customizing a document interface for display on a computer monitor.
In accordance with the present invention, a documentation file is retrieved. Next, an input from a user is received. The input from the user comprises an instruction for customizing a hierarchical format of the retrieved documentation file. Based on the received input from the user, the hierarchical format of the retrieved documentation file is dynamically customized.